Today's News-Monday, August 20th

A stand at Renninger's Market was the scene of an attempted robbery yesterday afternoon.
An employee at a pretzel stand inside the market along Route 61 was approached by a young white male around 1:30pm. He presented a note stating "stay calm and don’t make me shoot, open the cash register and give me all the money." State police report that the employee panicked and walked away from the counter. The man grabbed the note and left the scene without any loot. No weapon was displayed during the robbery. The suspect is described as being a white male in his early to mid-20's with short blondish hair and wearing a white or black baseball cap. He reportedly was wearing a baggy red t-shirt and possible blue jeans. Pottsville police and state troopers believe that the man is the same suspect who robbed the Dairy Queen on Route 61 Saturday. If anyone has information about the case, please contact Schuylkill Haven state police at 593-2000.

A Shenandoah woman was injured in a crash Sunday evening in Rush Township. Rush Township police report that Patricia Nork was eastbound on Route 54 and crossed the center line, striking a minivan driven by Stanley Adams of Pine Grove head-on. According to the Republican and Herald, Nork was trapped in her car and had to be removed by emergency personnel. She was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital via ambulance. The rainy weather prevented a medical helicopter from flying to the scene. Adams, nor his teenage passenger, were injured. The crash happened around 6pm.

A public hearing, sponsored by two Schuylkill County legislators, will be held Tuesday in Pottsville. State Reps. Tim Seip and Neal Goodman will host a public hearing of the House Finance Committee at the Sovereign Majestic Theatre at 10am tomorrow. The focus of the hearing is a recently introduced bill Seip and Goodman are co-sponsoring that would provide an estimated average 40 to 50 percent reduction in school property taxes for homeowners as soon as next year. The property-tax proposal (House Bill 1600) has nearly 50 co-sponsors, almost a quarter of the House membership. Co-sponsors of the legislation include the two top members of the House majority leadership, as well as 14 Republicans. The co-sponsors, include Representative Dave Argall, in addition to Seip and Goodman.

An Orwigsburg woman had moderate injuries following a Saturday afternoon crash in Wayne Township. Schuylkill Haven state police say that Albert Acker of Souderton, Beverly Finney of Orwigsburg and an unidentified vehicle were all traveling west on Route 895 near Sunnyside Drive when Acker attempted to pass both vehicles. Finney attempted to turn onto a private driveway, and was struck by Acker’s vehicle. Both cars slid off the road onto the shoulder of the road, and Acker's car hit a telephone pole. The vehicles ended up in a brushy area alongside the road. Finney had to be freed from her vehicle and was flown to Reading Hosptial. State police will cite Acker in the Saturday afternoon crash.

A MaryD man is accused of arson following an incident early Saturday morning. Frackville state police report that two brothers, Jeffrey and Douglass Wilson, were arguing at a home on Back Street when Douglass Wilson left the home and was heard shouting that he was going to burn down the house. He proceeded to ignite a section of debris that was under the front porch of the home before fleeing the scene. The fire was put out before it damaged the structure. The investigation is continuing.

State police are investigating a burglary in Pine Grove Township early Friday. Troopers from the Schuylkill Haven barracks report that someone broke into a storage garage owned by Sherwood Kimmel Excavating. The thieves entered through a broken window. Items taken include a gas generator, a battery charger , welding tools and other equipment. If anyone has information about the burglary, they are asked to contact Schuylkill Haven State Police.

State police are investigating a hit and run in Pine Grove Township Saturday night. An unknown male was driving a pickup truck on State Route 30-02 after 10pm when he struck a 17 year old female. The driver kept going without stopping to help the pedestrian. The girl was taken to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville via LifeFlight. Troopers are still looking for the driver.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (AP) - Storm shelters are open in the Cayman Islands, as Hurricane Dean spins ever closer. The Category 4 storm swiped Jamaica, tearing roofs from homes and causing floods and landslides, but no deaths are reported there.

HOUSTON (AP) - Hurricane Dean appears headed for Mexico but people in south Texas are taking no chances. They've been snapping up emergency supplies in Brownsville. Officials are worried about flooding rains from Dean even if there's no direct hit.

UNDATED (AP) - Rescue workers in Minnesota will resume their search today for a man reported missing in heavy flooding. At least six are known dead in the state. Some survivors say they spent a terrifying night on their rooftops. Six people died in Oklahoma floods.

HUNTINGTON, Utah (AP) - After two weeks of public optimism, mining officials now say they may never find the six men caught in a Utah coal mine cave-in. Angry relatives of the missing men say federal officials and the mining company are leaving their loved ones for dead and they're demanding that rescuers keep drilling.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The woman who is a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents is now in Mexico. Elvira Arellano was deported hours after her arrest in Los Angeles. The woman stayed in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her son, who is an American citizen.

KEMPTON, Pa. (AP) - David Hughes says he didn't mind the rain, the fog or the fact that only two raptors were sighted all Sunday afternoon at Hawk Mountain's North Lookout. He says it gets you away from the everyday, hectic rat race. Hughes has been volunteering to count birds for 15 years at the Albany Township sanctuary. Despite the weather, he says, it's better than sitting in an office. As part of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's 71st annual autumn hawk watch, a staff member or volunteer will be recording the number and type of birds of prey migrating past the lookout on Kittatinny Ridge. The effort started August 15th and runs until December 15th. Officials say records from the watch are the oldest sources of bird migratory information in the world.

READING, Pa. (AP) - Eric Zebert says he had no idea that lead contamination would be an issue when he bought his home in Laureldale two years ago. But after neighbors told him the area had been tested for lead dust, he confirmed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency
that his yard once tested positive for the contamination. Now, he's hoping that federal authorities will rid his yard of it. EPA officials announced this month after years of review that
175 yards with lead soil levels above 650 parts per million in the Muhlenberg Township area will be cleaned up. Zebert's soil tested at 705 parts per million. Since 2001, the EPA and Exide Technologies have debated the scope of the decades-long contamination from the former General Battery plant bought by Exide in 1987.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The collapse of bottled drinks maker Le-Nature's Incorporated is not your ordinary bankrupcty case. There are allegations of document shredding, the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in jewelry and accounting fraud on a huge scale. The company's fall has left creditors wringing their hands and picking over a tangle of assets that so far pale in comparison with their losses - more than 820 million dollars. At the center of the allegations: Gregory J. Podlucky, the company's 47-year-old high-flying founder and former chief
executive. A federal criminal investigation is under way, but no charges have been filed. Podlucky's attorney declined comment Friday on the accusations that have surfaced during the bankruptcy case. The main Le-Nature's plant was auctioned last week for $20 million dollars.

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) - Some Pennsylvania college presidents are supporting an alternative to rankings of their schools. The presidents of Gettysburg and Dickinson colleges are serving
on the Annapolis Group, which is preparing a data bank of information on private liberal arts colleges. Unlike the much-heralded rankings that came out Friday from U.S. News and World Report, the group's database won't rank the schools. Dickinson College President William Durden says the goal is to offer sensible information, rather than what he called "spurious
rankings." Robert Morse, the magazine's director of data research, says such criticism hides the fact that college officials don't want to be graded. The Annapolis Group is led by Gettysburg College President Katherine Will.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Another acoustics consultant is giving a sour review to the Philadelphia Orchestra's main concert hall. R. Lawrence Kirkegaard seconds an opinion that the sound in the
elegant, wood-lined hall of the Kimmel Center needs some fine tuning. Officials at the 265 million-dollar center, which opened in December 2001, say no decisions have been made about any improvements. In 2005, Russell Johnson's Artec Consultants, the hall's original acoustician, said the hall suffered from low levels of reverberance and impact. Artec suggests replacing more than 100 doors that open into the acoustical chamber surrounding the hall.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man was sentenced to six months' home detention and three years' probation in federal court for trafficking in counterfeit goods, including Louis Vuitton handbags.
A jury in April of last year convicted Mamadou Diallo of one count of trademark counterfeiting.
State police stopped 42-year-old Diallo in Mercer County in 2005 for not having a light on his license plate. They searched Diallo's van and discovered an estimated $200,000 worth of counterfeit clothing and handbags. Diallo, who now lives in Indianapolis, was also ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution to the French fashion company Louis Vuitton.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Philadelphia is not the only city with a statue to Rocky Balboa.
A down-on-its-luck Serbian village has erected a 10-foot Rocky statue, hoping to channel some of Rocky's fighting spirit of the fictional boxer. The statue was unveiled Saturday night in Zitiste, a poor village about 35 miles north of Belgrade that's been beset in recent years by flooding and landslides. Fed up, the locals are hoping the statue of the fighting Philadelphia underdog will revive the town's image.

CAMP HILL, Pa. (AP) - Inmates who say they once ran from the law are now running for a good cause. Inmates at the state prison at Camp Hill held a running event over the weekend on an indoor track to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lancaster County. Organizers say about 400 inmates ran or walked around the track in Saturday's annual charity event. They hope to top last year's effort, which tallied 3,000 miles and raised $1,400 dollars. Participants pay $1.50 to walk or run, which is no small amount given prison pay that tops out at 42 cents an hour. The inmates say they hope that children get opportunities they missed - and avoid
life behind bars.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A 24-year-old man was shot in the stands at a youth football game series in Pittsburgh over the weekend. Authorities did not identify the man. He was taken to a hospital
after the shooting Saturday afternoon at Stargell Field in the city's Homewood neighborhood. He was listed in serious condition with abdominal injuries. Police say they believe the assailant knew the victim. They say a man riding by on a motorcycle apparently noticed the other man
and fired at him before fleeing the scene. A fight broke out in the stands after the shooting, prompting a stampede of more than 200 people. But police say they don't know whether the fight and the shooting were related.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Aluminum maker Alcoa Incorporated says it temporarily suspended production at a refinery in Jamaica as a safety precaution before the arrival of Hurricane Dean.
The Pittsburgh-based company says it began shutting down the Jamalco alumina refinery Saturday. As soon as it is safe to assess the impact of the hurricane, the company will decide on a restart schedule. Hurricane Dean has been pummeled Jamaica with gusting winds and
torrential rains.